HUGHES feels his team have been given a raw deal in the build up to Sunday's League Cup Final meeting with Aberdeen.

JOHN Hughes spent his youth in Leith with the gloves on, scrapping inside the ropes, learning to take the punches as well as dish them out.

The Inverness Caley Thistle boss has taken a few low blows of late so perhaps it was only a matter of time before the boxer in him came out swinging.

Last
night in the scenic Red Poppy restaurant in sleepy Strathpeffer to the north of Inverness, Yogi let fly – and he didn’t miss.

It could have been a ploy to fire up the troops ahead of Sunday’s League Cup Final.

Whatever
the motivation, it was spectacular. Yogi’s fed up with everything going
against his side and is refusing to take it lying down.

Hughes is raging at just about everything around this final. He’s like a bear with a sore head at the fact his men need to face Hibs tomorrow while Aberdeen are on the golf course at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews.

Then there are the two harsh yellow cards in the semi that got Gary Warren banned from the final, the scheduling of that
last-four clash with Hearts in Edinburgh, the original plans for fans at Parkhead, the red cards dished out to Greg Tansey and Marley Watkins in Sunday’s Scottish Cup defeat.

Having lost 5-0 to Celtic and Dundee United, Hughes feels like the entire world is against his squad. But maybe that’s what he wants them to think.

He said: “I’ve been in football a long time. I don’t say too much, don’t do a lot of press. I try to keep my counsel.

“I’ve
got a lot of respect in the game. I’ve got a lot of good friends and when it comes time to speak, I’d like to think a lot of Scottish football sits up and listens.

“But
that’s not the case sometimes. Football people don’t get to speak. Scottish football is sometimes about administrators and I don’t think that’s great for the game.

“Maybe it’s the way I’ve been brought up. I’m grateful and thankful I played football, it kept me out of trouble.

“That’s what it was all about in my day. Join the football and
boxing club and get that discipline. Now it’s turned full circle. That goes for every cup final – the best players should be allowed to play in
finals.”

If it all sounds a little bit of a Sir Alex Ferguson siege mentality complex then that’s because it’s meant to.

Hughes
said: “Does it sound like that? I might be doing it on purpose and you might have to second guess me, but there’s a an honest side of me and some of the stuff is true – in the semi in Edinburgh we were right on Hearts’ doorstep in a game that kicked off at 12.30.

“Then they try to give us tickets in that wee corner at the back of the goal? So what if they don’t sell it out?

“It’s about the occasion and letting every Inverness fan enjoy it. It’s not about making money. I’m just stating a fact.

“Having
played the game for 30 years, I took plenty myself – broken legs plenty, dished it out plenty, got up, dusted down and got on with it.

“I
probably know the game better than the refs, on what’s a tackle and what’s not a tackle. What’s a free-kick and what’s not a free-kick. They
know the rules but I know the game – the worst tackle at the weekend went unpunished.

“Then you look back to the semi-final and the sending offs. The worst tackle in that game was Scott Robinson on Billy Mckay and he got booked.

“You’re
scratching your head. Then you get the two bookings on Warren that you can’t appeal for some unknown reason and one of the most honest pros I’ve ever worked with will miss out on a national cup final. It might be
the only one he gets the chance to play in. I don’t think that’s right but what can you do?”

The Hibs clash is another contentious issue for Hughes – even though it will
now free up Tansey and Watkins from suspension for the final.

Yogi
said: “We have to go for it. I’m fully aware it’s advantage Aberdeen. For some unknown reason the SPFL have said there’s Hibs in midweek.

“Aberdeen
have got the advantage if they didn’t have it already having sold 40,000 tickets. If we get a red card they miss the cup final. If they get injured what do I do?

“On the other hand you want another game so it might have worked in our favour.

“You
don’t want to be going into that cup final on the back of two drubbings. It wouldn’t surprise me if the guys pull it out the bag.”

If the gaffer is anything to go by, they won’t be pulling their punches.